Miki Kekenj & WDR Funkhausorchester - Mein Utopia - Opus 2 (2020) [Hi-Res]

The debut album by producer, composer and violinist MIKI Kekenj is a large-scale concept album between epic orchestral sounds, hip hop beats and rap - featuring Curse and the WDR Funkhausorchester

"With 'My Utopia' Miki Kekenj proves that it is possible to bring together classical music and hip hop, these two musical genres which at first glance may seem to have nothing to do with each other. With a musical force that only classical music is capable of and with lyrical depth that only hip hop can provide," writes hip hop specialist and journalist Jan Wehn

MIKI Kekenj lives his very own utopia: as the first concertmaster of the Bergische Symphoniker, he has had a penchant for classical music as a professional musician for years. But the violinist and composer has another passion: Hip Hop, the production of beats and rapping. Whoever in Germany needs a string arrangement for an official hip hop, soul or pop production will sooner or later come across MIKI's name. He has already put artists such as Namika or Johannes Oerding, Curse, Aloe Blacc or Erykah Badu, Joy Denalane or Joris in the spotlight with string arrangements

"My Utopia" is conceived from the classical music and its sound language, but never loses sight of hip hop. Even the overture "Frühling" (Spring) at the beginning of the album comes along without any drums, but in its dynamic it still provides a musical basis for the rap of MIKI and Curse. Conceived as an instrumental concert for violin, rap and orchestra, hip hop songs with authentic drums emerge from each of the movements. In the lyrics and compositions of "Mein Utopia", MIKI thinks up the ideal of a future age, but also the supposed hopelessness of this alternative. He tells cruel stories that - hidden between the lines of a lullaby - come true again and again and dares to look into a life without love as redemption. With a musical force that only classical music is capable of and with lyrical depth that only hip hop can provide

"I am often asked how I came up with the idea of combining hip hop and classical music in the first place," says MIKI. "For me it's quite easy to answer that: I do what I do best." With his Takeover! ensemble, he has since then regularly invited the most diverse soul, hip hop, pop and techno artists from Curse and Joris to Joy Denalane, Max Mutzke, Marc Romboy or Moonbootica onto the stage, in order to reinterpret their discography with them in a chamber-musical way

For "Mein Utopia" he draws on his entire wealth of musical experience and creates a total work of art between epic orchestra sounds, hip hop beats and rap.